Tuesday, February 16, 2016

The USAC Stock Cars at Du Quoin (1960 – 1969)

By Kyle Ealy

Du Quoin,
Ill. – It’s been a Labor Day
Weekend tradition for over 60 years; stock cars competing on the “Magic Mile”
dirt oval at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois.

Beginning in the early 50’s stock cars raced on the historic
fairgrounds under the American Automobile Association (AAA) rules and still
continue to this day, racing with the sanctioning body of the Automobile Racing
Club of America (ARCA).

But we’ll focus on what many still believe were the heydays
of this event, the stars and cars of the United States Auto Club (USAC).

Beginning in 1956 and ending with its demise in the early
80’s the USAC stock cars brought an exciting brand of racing to Du Quoin and
with it, some legendary names.

Big-name racing stars such as Marshall Teague, Jerry Unser
and Fred Lorenzen (twice) were winners of the race as the 50’s came to a close.

We’ll start our story on September 3, 1960…

Norm Nelson of Racine,
Wis., would usher in a new decade
of stock car racing at Du Quoin by winning the 100-mile event that day,
dominating the race throughout and winning handily.

Nelson would win the 100-lapper in 1 hour, 11 minutes and 15
seconds, breaking the old mark of 1 hour and 16 minutes set by Lorenzen the
year before. Nelson banked $2,009 of the $11,640 record purse.

Paul Goldsmith of St.
Clair Shores, Mich.,
would set a new track record in qualifying, touring the mile in 46.42 seconds,
which would draw him the pole position for the start of the race. Goldsmith would
lead the race for the first 14 laps building up a comfy half-mile lead, when
his motor when kaput and he was forced to retire for the afternoon. Nelson
would inherit the lead and never look back.

Don White of Keokuk, Iowa, made a strong run, progressing
through the field and moving by Rodger Ward for third place on lap 30 and taking
over the second spot on the 38th tour from Tony Bettenhausen. White drove a
steady race the rest of the afternoon until his motor ran afoul on the white
flag lap. Bettenhausen would seize the opportunity to take runner-up honors,
nearly three quarters of a mile behind Nelson at the checkers. Ward would hold
on to third, John Rostek of Fort
Collins, Colo., was
fourth and Elmer Musgrave of Niles,
Ill., rounding out the top five.

Paul Goldsmith would win the Du Quoin 100-miler in 1961, '62 and '65.

Goldsmith would come back with a vengeance the next year,
and on September 3, 1961,
would set qualifying and race records before a crowd of more than 22,000.
Goldsmith shattered his own time trial mark he set the year before, circling
the track in 44.07 seconds and then win the race in 1 hour, 10 minutes and 18
seconds, beating Nelson’s mark of 1960.

The race itself would be a tremendous duel between Goldsmith
and Rodger Ward, with no other driver ever in contention. Ward would take the
lead from Goldsmith on lap 4 with Don White, Eddie Sachs of Cooperstown, Pa.,
and Len Sutton of Portland,
Ore., and defending race winner
Nelson right behind the front-row starting duo.

The top five raced in a snug formation for the next 18 laps
until White dropped out on lap 19, followed by Nelson on lap 29 and Sachs near
the midway point, lap 48. By that point, Ward, Goldsmith and Sutton had lapped
nearly the entire field and the race had settled down to a two-car tussle
between Ward and Goldsmith.

It
seemed just a matter of time until Goldsmith would pass Ward as he dogged
Ward's back bumper lap after lap. Finally, on lap 63, Goldsmith saw his opening
on the north turn and sped to the lead never to be in danger gain as he
gradually opened up distance on Ward.

The
outcome was not unexpected as Goldsmith won easily, extending a point’s lead
that would eventually propel him to his first USAC national crown, and
collecting a whopping $5,000 out of a record purse of over $15,000. Ward would
hold on to second after a spirited battle, Sutton would claim third, Dick
Rathmann of Roselle, Ill., fourth and Bill Cheesbourg of Tucson, Ariz.,
in fifth.

Race
fans, impressed by the ’61 contest, would turn out in record numbers on September 2, 1962. “This is the
biggest crowd ever for any event at the fair,” remarked one Du Quoin official
as he surveyed the huge crowd of an estimated 23,000 people who paid their way
into three grandstands.

The
center grandstand, which held 12,000 people, and the 6,500 capacity south
stands were packed. The north stands, which seated 3,500 people, were almost overflowing.
Hundreds of other fans watched free of charge from the turns, as did the usual
gallery of fans who built platforms on truck beds outside the south fence.

The
size of the crowd was reflected by the total purse of $20,309, which compared
with a 1961 record of $15,100 and a 1960 record of $11,640. The total purse, when
accessory prizes were included, set a world record for a stock car race.

Rodger
Ward would draw the pole position with a qualifying time of 41.29 seconds in a
1962 Pontiac
but it was defending race winner Paul Goldsmith taking the lead when Ward went
high going into the north turn on the first lap. Goldsmith would never look
back, winning by half a lap over the rest of the 27-car starting field.
Goldsmith’s winning time was comparable to his run the year before at 1 hour,
12 minutes and 54 seconds.

Don
White, driving a ’62 Ford, was the only other driver on the lead lap and
finished second. Dick Rathmann would lead a trio of Illinois drivers with a strong third place
showing with Herb Shannon of Peoria and Sal Tovella of Addison following
behind.

Gary Bettenhausen #99 and Mario Andretti #4 lead the field to green in 1963. - Doug Dempsey Collection

On
Sunday afternoon, September 2, 1963,
Norm Nelson, driving a 1963 Plymouth,
would nip Goldsmith by a mere .70 seconds to win his second 100-miler at Du
Quoin. Nelson took the lead on lap 11 and never relinquished it, winning in a
time 1 hour, 13 minutes and 19 seconds.

Goldsmith
would challenge Nelson numerous times in the final 20 laps, but “The Great Dane”
fought off every advance. Nelson would earn $3,824 in prize money and collect
another 200 points in his march to the USAC stock car national championship
(which Don White would eventually win).

NASCAR
star Curtis Turner and Don White would take third and fourth, both driving ’63
Fords, while Herb Shannon of Peoria, Ill., who set a new track record the day
before in qualifying (40.44 seconds), would round out the top five.

Another
standing room only crowd watched Joe Leonard of San Jose, Calif.,
set a new qualifying mark of 39.34 seconds on Saturday and then go on to
victory in the 100-mile race on Sunday,
September 6, 1964.

Spectators
would witness a sensational battle between A.J. Foyt and Rodger Ward for the
first 30 laps of the race. Foyt, driving a 1964 Dodge, and Ward, piloting a ’64
Mercury, would pass Leonard on the start and proceed to trade paint for the
next 25 laps, going back and forth for the top spot.

Foyt,
experiencing tire trouble early, would eventually have to pit during caution on
lap 30 ending what could have been a classic tussle between two of the best.
Ward would continue to lead for another 10 laps until Len Sutton of Portland, Ore.,
took over, who would then give way to Leonard at the midway point as the three
drivers remain tightly bunched.

Unfortunately
for Ward, he would get caught up in one of those “wrong place, wrong time”
sequences when Eddie Meyer of Glenview, Ill, rolled his 1964 Ford, and when
Lloyd Ruby and Gary Bettenhausen swerved to avoid Meyer, they collected Ward,
retiring all three for the rest of the afternoon.

After
the clean-up, Leonard and Sutton, both driving ’64 Dodges, would continue to
run one-two for the last 40 circuits with Leonard winning by a comfortable
margin when the checkers flew. His time of 1 hour, 18 minutes and 50 second
(82.1 miles per hour) was almost 3 minutes off the record pace set in 1961.

Foyt,
who was not among the top 10 cars at the midway point, put on a racing clinic
for the last half of the contest. The 29-year-old Texan, known for his fierce
driving, passed car after car in the battle for also-rans and would finish an
impressive fifth behind Leonard, Sutton, Bobby Marshman of Pottstown, Pa.,
in a 1964 Ford, and defending race winner Norm Nelson in a 1964 Plymouth.

The near
record crowd would produce a Du Quoin State Fairgrounds record purse of
$23,650, of which Leonard would cash in on $4,343 of it. That record would
stand for less than 24 hours as the USAC champ car race on Labor Day would
produce a $24,050 purse.

After
being banned from USAC competition for competing with a rival circuit (NASCAR)
in 1964, Paul Goldsmith, now driving out of Munster, Ind.,
was itching to reclaim his Magic Mile crown upon his return in 1965. And that’s
exactly what he did…

On
September 5, Goldsmith went out and simply picked up where he left off, leading
the last 85 laps and leaving everyone in his rearview mirror. In winning his
third 100-miler at Du Quoin, Goldsmith collected $4,303 of the $23,120 purse in
a time of one hour, 16 minutes, 4 seconds, the slowest since 1959. He averaged
78.8 miles per hour in his 1965 Plymouth.

The
22,000 plus fans who bought every available seat at Du Quoin waited until 4 p.m. for the race to get started
without benefit of time trials. The 27 drivers got their pole positions by a
drawing while heavy trucks pounded the race course from early morning to make
the race possible.

The
most excitement of the race came at the starting line when Bobby Isaac,
starting on the inside of row two behind polesitter Gary Bettenhausen and Mario
Andretti on the front row, gunned his 1965 Dodge to the soft inside part of the
track to shoot into the lead.

Isaac,
Goldsmith, Jim Hurtubise, A.J. Foyt and Bettenhausen held the first five
positions after 10 laps already marked by several pit stops and stalls by other
cars. Isaac went to the pits after 15 laps and eventually dropped out of the
race at 50 laps.

All
the drivers except Goldsmith had troubles as the soft, muddy conditions took a
toll on man and his machine. Through the last half of the race less than half
the starters were on the track most of the time and only 10 were running at the
finish.

Don
White of Keokuk, Iowa had been the man to beat on the USAC
stock car circuit in August of 1966 winning three straight races on three
one-mile tracks. He scored a victory at the Milwaukee Mile on August 18th, the Allen
Crowe Memorial at the Springfield (Ill.) Mile on August 19th and the
State Century race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on August 26th.

The crowd is arriving and the stock cars are getting ready for the 1966 race.

So,
when White and 1966 Dodge Charger pulled onto the track at Du Quoin, Ill.,
on September 4th, there was no reason to believe that he was going to lose there
either. Before another standing room only crowd of 21,000 fans on a warm Sunday
afternoon, White won the pole position with a qualifying mile run of 39.45
seconds and then won the 100-mile test by leading wire to wire. Norm Nelson of Racine, Wis.,
driving a 1966 Plymouth,
finished five seconds behind White as the number one and two drivers in the
USAC point’s standings lapped every other car in the race.

White’s
Plymouth stable
mate, Jim Hurtubise made it a three-car race early. Hurtubise ran second to
White briefly but pulled into the pits after 29 laps and never got started
again. He finished last in the 25-car field. Nelson had white within his sights
during the whole race but was never able to get within reach to muster a
charge.

White’s
winning time of one hour, nine minutes, and 50.42 seconds was a new race record
at Du Quoin at an average speed of 85.910 miles per hour. Paul Goldsmith had set
the old record of 1 hour, 10 minutes and 18.52 seconds in 1961 in a Pontiac.

An
interesting side note to the ’66 event; there was not a single General Motors
product among the 25 starters in what was strictly a Dodge-Chrysler-Ford
contest.

Despite
White’s Du Quoin victory and his four-race winning streak, it would be Norm
Nelson in first place in the point standings and he would eventually lay claim
to the 1966 USAC stock car national title, his second straight and third
overall.

When
the USAC boys of summer rolled into Du Quoin on September 3,1967,
it was White at the top of the point standings and he was looking to wrap up
the title.

When
the checkered waved, it was the ‘66 national champ, Norm Nelson, winning the
race and ‘66 Du Quoin winner Don White being crowned as the 1967 USAC stock car
driving champion. The real story, however, was how White clinched the
championship…

White
was the fastest qualifier at 39.54 seconds in his 1967 Dodge Charger but after
leading only a dozen laps, he smashed into the north fence and his car was
disabled. White quickly went searching throughout the pit area looking for
someone who was willing to give up their car. White needed to gain more points;
the money wasn’t his primary concern. He found someone who was willing to
split…

“You
take the money and I’ll take the points," White told Al Unser in the pits
a few minutes later. So White took Unser’s 1967 Dodge Charger and finished sixth.
The 80 points he gained gave him a total of 2,698 for the season and put him
out of reach of second place Jack Bowsher, who had 2,064 points with only one
race left.

Nelson,
driving a 1967 Plymouth, never appeared on his way to victory until the last
few minutes of the race when leader Parnelli Jones, driving a 1967 Ford, and A.
J. Foyt, another Ford man, were both forced to the pits on the 92ndand 96th laps with right rear flat tires.

Nelson
made his mandatory pit stop early in the race and was running well behind the leaders
until they also took advantage of caution periods for pit stops. Nelson led
from lap 42 until lap 58 until Jones passed him to take the lead.

Don White (1) and Al Unser (5) lead the field to green in the 1968 contest. - Doug Dempsey Collection

A
record breaking crowd waited patiently Sunday, September
1, 1968 until a 4:15
p.m. starting time to see Don White win his second career USAC
stock car race at Du Quoin State Fair over a slow track.

Rains
which forced cancellation of Saturday’s midget races also left the track muddy
early Sunday morning. Trucks - and even a helicopter - were used to dry the
track for a belated start, which saw 32 entries begin the 100-mile test.

The
crowd of 21,500 put up a record purse of $31,265 for the drivers to split. A
slight increase in admission prices this year made it possible for the purse to
jump from the previous record of $23,400 set the year before.

The
time trials were much slower than usual as drivers had to exercise caution on a
tracked packed on the inside and outside but fairly soft down the middle. White
would win the pole position with a qualifying time of 41.49 seconds, which was
well off the record time. Only seven qualifiers, however, bettered 45 seconds
in qualifying times.

The
race itself provided loss and less excitement the further it went and the more
apparent it became that White would be the winner without much challenge.

Butch
Hartman flashed to the early lead by passing White and Al Unser of Albuquerque as all three
drove 1968 Dodges. Hartman’s lead lasted only three laps before he rammed Jim
Perry of Indianapolis
into the south inside rail. Hartman’s car was damaged and he left the race.

After
the caution flag was lifted on the ninth lap, Unser took the lead with White,
Foyt, Parnelli Jones in a 1967 Dodge and Roger McCluskey in a 1968 Plymouth in hot pursuit.

Unser
led until he made a pit stop on the 29th lap to fall back to fourth. White and
Foyt would run one-two the remainder of the race, except for one brief lead
change on lap 76 when White pitted only to regain the top spot when Foyt had to
stop for his mandatory stop.

The
winning time of 1 hour, 18 minutes and 11 seconds was at a speed of 76.73 miles
per hour, way off the marks (1:09:50/85.91
mph) set by White during the ’66 race.

Ed
Hoffman of Niles, Ill., put a monkey on Roger McCluskey’s back
on September 1, 1969
- and that monkey’s name was A. J. Foyt.

With
McCluskey comfortably in first place and only 16 miles from a Du Quoin State
Fairgrounds record payday, Hoffman stalled coming out of the south turn. The
caution flag went up until Hoffman’s car could be removed. As the field circled
the track under the caution, everyone in the house watched Foyt, who had been
running in the second position for 33 miles, inching closer and closer to
McCluskey’s rear bumper, waiting for the green flag to wave.

When
the green flag waved with only 11 miles to race, Foyt was driving on McCluskey’s
tail pipe. After they hit the east straightaway, Foyt’s Ford Torino was on the
rail with McCluskey’s Dodge Charger beside him.

They
raced head and head at full throttle at more than 100 miles per hour for a quarter
of a mile until they readied the north turn. McCluskey knew that no driver goes
full throttle around the turns at Du Quoin, but A.J. Foyt isn’t just any
driver.

McCluskey
eased up entering the turn and Foyt didn’t even let up on the gas – and that
was the race. They went 10 more laps before Foyt, who won his first USAC big
car championship race at Du Quoin in 1960, claimed his eighth triumph at Du
Quoin. It was the first time he had won in the stock cars after six previous
wins in big cars and one in sprints.

Foyt won
the pole with a record qualifying time of 38.71 seconds and defending race
champion Don White was almost as fast at 38.75. Both broke the race record of
39.34 by Joe Leonard in 1964. Foyt and White had provided all the early
fireworks until White tagged the north wall and exited after 37 miles.

A
record purse of $31,597 and a paid attendance of 19,407 brought Foyt a $5,473
payday. McCluskey earned $3,746 for his runner-up finish, Al Unser collected
$2,593 for taking third, Bill “Whitey” Gerken of Villa Park, Ill., $2,017 for
fourth, and Verlin Eaker of Cedar
Rapids, Iowa took
home $1,729 for fifth.

The
60’s had ended with Norm Nelson, Paul Goldsmith and Don White dominating the
Magic Mile. The 70’s would see a batch of new faces in victory lane at Du
Quoin…

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Preserving the history of Midwest Auto Racing

So much racing history has been made through the years right here in the Midwest.

From the rich dirt ovals in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska to the paved short tracks in Minnesota and Wisconsin, some of the best drivers ever to get behind the wheel of a race car competed right here in the heartland.

We all have our own story to share about our favorite driver who thrilled us everytime they rolled onto the track or that one particular race that still stands out as the greatest they ever saw.

We'll go back in history, 10, 20, 30, 40, even 50 years ago (even more) and reminisce about what has made racing in the Midwest so special for us.